Join the MTI Pavilion at UMEX 2022

MTI is inviting pre-owned machine tool dealers in Europe to join the established and successful MTI Pavilion at the UMEX 2022 exhibition (25-27 August, New Delhi, India). MTI is the official partner for UMEX, which this year will be the 17th edition of the show. UMEX 2022 will run concurrently with five other complementary exhibitions, serving up Asia’s biggest business carnival for the machinery, manufacturing and metal industries.

UMEX 2022 provides a unique opportunity to sell or buy all pre-owned metal-cutting and metal-forming machine tools to the rapidly growing marketplace in India. The exhibition is co-sponsored by Ministry of Steel, Ministry of External Affairs and the Council of Scientific & Industrial Research, and supported by the World Metal Forum. To be a part of the MTI Pavilion at UMEX 2022, please get in touch today as exhibition space is allotted on ‘first-come, first-served basis’.
For further information bob@machinerytradeinternational.com

Hewland invests in Bowers DigiMic

Bowers Group’s newly launched DigiMic digital micrometer has already impressed within the engineering sector, with Berkshire-based Hewland Engineering reporting improved efficiency within its quality and inspection processes.

Adrian Jarych, QHSE engineer at Hewland, says: “As a quality engineer and inspector I find the DigiMic really useful for everyday component inspection work. It’s easy to turn on, easy to calibrate, and it’s ready to use. The thimble is smooth and the accuracy is great. The parts we produce find use in motorsport and automotive transmissions and gearboxes, where precision is key. I know I’m getting trustworthy readings from the DigiMic.”

Used by Hewland Engineering to measure diameters and widths of components such as layshafts, pinion shafts, gears, hubs, clutch shafts, drive shafts and many other gearbox components, the DigiMic has already proven its reliability with pinpoint accuracy. The DigiMic boasts an accuracy of 2 μm maximum permissible error and 2 μm maximum error range. Ergonomically designed to fit comfortably in the hand, the device is a robust micrometer for shop floor use. Manufactured with an IP67 protection rating, the extra-large digital display makes reading data straightforward, with the user gaining immediate visual confirmation of the measurement.

Feedback from Hewland Engineering has indicated that the DigiMic has helped achieved an accurate thickness of gears and bearing journal diameters within its 0.01 mm tolerance. It offers the company an easy-to-use device with a large, clear digital screen, with the weight of the micrometer providing a substantial, high-quality feel. The Bluetooth connectivity to Sylvac software means that reporting has never been easier, making the creation of control plan reports more efficient by recording digital data rather than handwriting results.
For further information www.bowersgroup.co.uk

Rotary axis table for portable CMMs

RPI, a provider of rotary measurement and angular positioning devices, has expanded its metrology product range with the launch of OctoScan, improving productivity by up to 40%.
OctoScan is a highly accurate rotary axis enhancing the measurement capability of portable measurement arms. The device enables users to record objects that are larger than the standard reach of the portable arm easily and accurately.

This new rotary positioning system provides additional flexibility to the measurement process, minimising errors and increasing accuracy for otherwise difficult-to-reach areas with an overall increase in measurement volume.

OctoScan is also built with convenience in mind with wireless functionality and high portability around the production line. It can integrate with any measurement arm or portable CMM. For example, the LK Metrology Freedom Arm measuring system on display at the Control 2022 exhibition earlier this year had a fully integrated OctoScan via PolyWorks software.

The universally compatible design enables very easy set-up. Additionally, OctoScan’s design allows parts to fix into place in many different ways. Built-in magnets and multiple threaded fixing holes allow for an element of bespoke fixing.

Thanks to its full access to say, larger parts, and using only a single set up, OctoScan is able to increase overall workplace productivity by up to 40%, while also significantly minimising human error and fatigue. This is due to it eliminating the need for repeat measurements of certain parts that would typically stand outside the measurement range. Octoscan has a radial and axial runout of 1 µm and coning of axis ±0.5 arcs-seconds.
For further information www.rpiuk.com/products/octoscan

£40m green transport facility unveiled

A new £40m research facility that will drive forward advances in powerful, clean electrification technology and pave the way towards a new generation of low-carbon, sustainable electric vehicles, power and propulsion has been unveiled by the University of Nottingham. The state-of-the-art Power Electronics and Machines Centre (PEMC) offers purpose-built laboratories for the Power Electronics, Machines and Control research group, the largest such group of researchers in the world. By March 2024, the PEMC estimates that £470m worth of industrial work will align with the facility.
For further information www.bit.ly/3PhVYAC

RE THOMPSON FULLY CHARGED WITH HYPERMILL

The pandemic has undoubtedly changed the way everyone works, but for Open Mind Technologies, undergoing an extensive online tendering and prove-out process against its competitors was an exciting new challenge. RE Thompson has ambitious plans for its manufacturing facility and implementing the correct CAM system was seen as a critical decision requiring due diligence for the subcontract manufacturer.

Founded in 1948, RE Thompson has manufactured aerospace components for more than 60 years, diversifying into the electronics, medical, hydrogen and electric vehicle (EV) sectors in its more recent history. To undertake this diversification, the company has invested over £7m in the past 10 years, an investment that includes: a second 20,000 sq ft manufacturing facility in 2015; fibre connectivity and decarbonising infrastructure; DMG Mori five-axis machining centres; and, most recently, an Okuma Multus from NCMT and a CMM from Hexagon.

The next step for the Hampshire-based company is to increase its throughput and workflows through automation. Unlike most subcontract manufacturers, RE Thompson already has impressive factory floor automation with a remarkable 512 pallets on just nine machining centres. The bottleneck for RE Thompson has been the process flow away from the factory floor – primarily CAM programming. For RE Thompson, its existing CADCAM system was ‘old hat’, and the technology was not available for modern machining strategies such as the lens and barrel tools that it requires for machining blisks and impellers for the aerospace industry.

Commenting upon the existing system, company owner Michael Thompson says: “The system was falling down on meeting our requirements and some of its strategies are at least 10 years old, and every time a new version is launched, there’s nothing significantly new with it. We first put the old system in our factory around three decades ago and over the years it has failed to keep up with technology to the point that the developers don’t even create their post processors. If you had all day, I could provide a complete list of reasons why we needed to move away.

“The system put a lot of limitations on our business with regards to our MPI [Marginal Propensity to Invest],” continues Thompson. “From now to October, certain things will be transforming within our business, and this includes MPI, lead times and turnaround times. We have a lot of knowledge and skill in the company, but we had an old CADCAM system that has been holding us back. What we’re doing now is building a new system from the ground up, we have installed a new fibre network infrastructure and installed ultra-efficient air compressors with full redundancy. Allowing better use of what we have.”

With regard to selecting Open Mind, Thompson reveals: “We looked at five or six systems, but we wanted the flexibility to create really good tool paths. It was a very short review of these systems, as we quickly narrowed it down to two packages. HyperMILL has a very good reputation in the UK; lots of prestigious companies and subcontractors use it and there is local support. However, local support is now increasingly irrelevant, as the pandemic and our feasibility study through to adoption have shown. We’ve been implementing the system with Open Mind over Microsoft Teams and have yet to meet them in person. We sometimes have people in six or eight different locations working from home, so in being able to implement HyperMILL everyone involved has been fantastic.”

He adds: “When we narrowed our process down to two vendors, we found that HyperMILL had advanced tool path strategies and the overall support was outstanding. We spoke with Ken Baldwin and Jon Shortt in the UK but also with the Open Mind Team in Germany, who detailed innovations in the pipeline that would help us with our ambitious plans that we are working towards for October.”

Before alluding to the next tranche of features in the pipeline with HyperMILL Thompson emphasises the existing features that helped the company make its decision: “The flexibility of HyperMILL is second to none and they have really honed-in on three- and five-axis strategies, as well as turning. With its reputation in high-end five-axis machining, we were very surprised by how good the turning package is.”

Looking at particular components manufactured by RE Thompson, HyperMILL will help the company with very small parts when it wants to make multiples through to very large semi-conductor chambers. Indeed, there is one part in the MPI stage that will save RE Thompson a staggering four days by using HyperMILL. The company will achieve this saving through automating datum settings.

“When you have a lot of datums and ports on a job, we have to set those all individually and, on our previous system, you really had to markdown in detail what had been set up,” says Thompson. “With HyperMILL, it just does it for you. This saving is just in setting the jobs, it doesn’t even account for the possible savings in overall programming and the machining cycles. When it comes to machining cycles and retracts, HyperMILL will naturally follow the shortest tool path.”

On the factory floor, the company produces everything from 1-off and small batches to runs of hundreds of parts. Turning naturally has higher production volumes, but some milling jobs can be up to 500-off a year of very complex parts for some clients. The company processes parts with utmost efficiency due to the company’s investment in 512 pallets that are either integrated via machine tool suppliers like DMG Mori or through automation specialist Fastems. This strategy has enabled the business to run lights out 24/7 since 2008.

Looking at this evolving mix of work, Thompson says: “Other than retracts, our tool paths are pretty good, and we minimise air cutting and maximise machine utilisation where possible. Where HyperMILL will make a difference is during the time from order receipt to first-off production. We expect lead times to reduce hugely, which means our productivity will at least double. At present, we have four manufacturing engineers programming, but we have another three setters that will be trained to program, and we have another three positions advertised at the moment. To facilitate this, we’ll be investing in 10 seats of HyperMILL, but I expect this to double and eventually increase four-fold.”

Head of sales Matthew Shaw adds: “The addition of HyperMILL will be great for the sales team, as we’ll have more capacity to sell. We can also adopt a much better approach to the market. HyperMILL will give us greater speed to market, a faster-quoting process and, with improved throughput, our lead times will improve significantly. Furthermore, with improved processes and machining strategies available to us through HyperMILL, we can emphasise the value this brings to our business and most importantly, our customers.”

With regards to being more competitive with this diverse workload, Thompson says: “Sometimes we weren’t competitive when machining propeller blades or impellers as we couldn’t use barrel tools, so our sales team had trouble selling that facility. With HyperMILL we’ll be able to utilise all of those tools and strategies.

“The tool library is also very impressive,” he adds. “Having the facility to build a tool library with comprehensive data on speeds, feeds, materials, and machining parameters excites our team, and Open Mind has even more features in the pipeline.
For further information www.openmind-tech.com